If you ask JBL, the former WWE Champion thinks Vince McMahon was a greater heel than Roddy Piper and John Cena was a greater world champion than Bruno Sammartino, but Hulk Hogan tops his list of champions.
On Something To Wrestle, co-host Conrad Thompson played the “Stay Silent” game with JBL. Thompson named a wrestler as the benchmark, then read off a list, and JBL was supposed to stay quiet unless someone topped the benchmark.
Starting with Piper as the greatest heel, JBL stayed quiet through a list that included Ted DiBiase, Ric Flair, Triple H and Hollywood Hogan, then spoke up for McMahon.
“Yes, Vince McMahon was a greater heel than Roddy Piper. Oh yeah, yeah. They’re both great. I mean, you read off all these names of really great people who are going to be either in the Hall of Fame or going to be in the Hall of Fame, and you got that one here that I think was better than Roddy. Yeah, absolutely. Vince versus Stone Cold was one of the hottest angles in the history of the business. There, you know, there may have been another angle or two that might have been hotter, but it’s in the top three for sure,” JBL said.
“The thing we got out of the Montreal Screwjob was evil Vince McMahon, and yes, my God, man, that was what a gift,” he added.
Outside the game, JBL said Gorgeous George was the greatest heel of all time.
“I think Vince and Roddy were the best. I think the greatest heel of all time was Gorgeous George,” he said. “But Gorgeous George to me is greatest heel. Freddie Blassie, great heel. Bob Orton, grandfather of Randy Orton, great heel. A lot of great heels.”
JBL also named Yusuf Ismail. For greatest world champion, Thompson started with Lou Thesz. JBL immediately picked Sammartino over Thesz, citing his sellouts at Madison Square Garden.
“I don’t think anybody could do what Bruno did,” JBL said. “I think Bruno was the foundation of so much of wrestling.”
He stayed with Sammartino through CM Punk, Randy Orton, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Sting, Triple H, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Roman Reigns and The Rock before speaking up for Cena.
“Because of what he had to do. He had the hardest role in the history of world champions to go from a rated R era, almost and maybe past that, where you could flip off your boss, drink beer. You could drop the F-bomb on TV, which guys did. You could say GD. I mean, you can do anything you want, to a G-rated era, and still carry the company. I think Cena had the hardest role in the history of wrestling, and he did it. So yes, I think that puts him slightly ahead of the great Bruno Sammartino,” JBL said.
After Harley Race and Steve Austin, JBL moved Cena aside for Hogan.
“Without him, you don’t have WrestleMania. Well, you have WrestleMania. You don’t have the success you have, and you had him slam the giant. Who else could have done that? The guys that could have done it, but nobody like Hogan. On the cover of Sports Illustrated twice. I mean, big star from the Rocky movie. I mean, Hogan was….people look back in the ’80s, it was all people talk about wrestling. People talk about Hulk Hogan, one of the most famous guys in the world. So yes, Hogan,” he said.
Hogan appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated once, in April 1985.
When Thompson added his name to the list, JBL picked himself.
“Oh, higher than all of them by far,” JBL said.
Thompson closed the list with Ric Flair and said Flair might disagree.
“Of course he would. All of them disagree with me because they think they’re the greatest champions because they all have big egos. I don’t have a big ego. I’m just looking at it from a historical perspective. From a historical perspective, I’ve got to be the greatest champion ever,” JBL said.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2K02tH5AHM1wRyjzcDBQDt?si=fb445bf8fa8240d7
